Currently, it is possible to receive television (TV) program in mobile devices, as well as in television sets. The advertisements received are typically part of the media stream, and pre-formatted and pre-selected to fit the TV program. This is typically the case in the Japanese OneSeg system, which broadcasts the same TV programs and advertisements to fixed TV sets and mobile devices. In short, the advertisements are not personalized to each user.
In the case of mobile TV, there is a trend to create separate channels, e.g. manifested in services which are being broadcast over DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld). However, while these mobile TV systems are usable to create mobile-specific TV services, they do not have any functionality to provide for personalized content object and advertisement.
Another noteworthy background feature is the efforts undertaken to create an Internet Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based IPTV system. The IMS architecture document is 3GPP TS 23.228 “IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Stage 2”. The IMS-based IPTV is specified in ETSI TISPAN (Dedicated subsystem for IPTV functions, ETSI TS 182 028 V2.0.0 (2008-01), IPTV functions supported by the IMS subsystem, ETSI TS 182 027 V2.0.0 (2008-02), Service Layer Requirements to Integrate NGN Services and IPTV, ETSI TS 181 016 V2.0.0 (2007-11), Requirements for network transport capabilities to support IPTV services, ETSI TS 181 014 V2.0.0 (2007-11).
The IMS-based IPTV will work equally well for downloaded and streamed media. The IMS enables a control structure for the operation of multimedia streams over the Internet protocol (IP), with many underlying functions such as authentication, authorization, etc. The multimedia streams can be both real-time and downloaded, and managed by protocols which are outside of IMS.
The IMS-based IPTV systems, such as described in the preliminary specifications of the Open IPTV Forum, typically contain a number of components (Open IPTV Forum—Functional Architecture—V 1.1, Approved Jan. 15, 2008). The control plane and the media plane are separated in the IMS-based IPTV systems. A video streaming takes place in the media plane. The control plane is used to set up a session between an end-user terminal and an application server. The application server, which terminates the control plane in the system side, controls the streaming server, which delivers the actual media, such as TV programs or videos.
The streaming servers deliver a stream of video content over an IP network, often using an encapsulation and control protocol such as a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). The video signal is often encoded in formats such as MPEG-2 or MPEG-4. This enables the embedding of codes in the video signal, which enables a content provider to insert advertisements.